FreakScore

Reviews and Problems with Lian-li PC-Q18

Showing 1-10 of 10

Overall 10

Best Home Server Case Ever

Dominic J., Newegg

15 February 2014

Summary: Overall this is the best little case I’ve ever bought for a small home server. It has great ventilation and holds a bunch of hard drives while still maintaining a small form factor unlike every other case I’ve looked into. It does come at a premium price but for everything I could stuff in such a small space it was well worth the investment.

Pros: Can hold a ton of hard drives in a small case. Depending on your configuration, you could have four 3.5 inch hard drives in the hard drive bay and another one in the 5.25 inch bay (Actually has holes to install a 2.5 or 3.5 inch hard drive natively) and another one on the bottom tray mount along with two 2.5 inch hard drives next to that one for a total of 8 hard drives! Features rubber isolating mounts for all of the hard drive mounting locations which dramatically r...

Cons: It would have been nice if they had made ventilation holes on the left side panel so that my power supply could be flipped the other way and take in fresh air from outside the case rather than from inside facing the CPU cooler. The included fans are very weak and don’t move a lot of air even at full speed which is disappointing. Most likely they were aiming for silence but either way I can change them out at least if I want or need to. Front microphone and headphone j...

Love the fit and finish on this case!

Jeremy H., Newegg

9 July 2013

Summary: This is the start of my new home theater and/or main workstation rig, so I understand the challenges that await getting everything just perfect. I have a carefully crafted parts list, so it might be a little while until complete, but maybe prices will drop!

Pros: Very nicely crafted, sturdy and easy to work with. Rubber grommets for the front fan and all hard drive mounts. Nice large and quiet fans to keep the air flowing, with filters for the occasional cleaning. Bonus, I must have the newest revision with a USB3 header for the motherboard, and an adapter to use the USB2 header internally if you don't have USB3. No external cables, woohoo!

Cons: Front fan was loose from its mount, but nothing damaged. Rubber grommets already installed and fan slid back into its mounting grooves without issue.

Bait and Switch :(

Summary: I wish they would have just said they were out of stock and not get me baited and switched out for the silver one. The time I wasted getting it RMA-ed was quite frustrating.

Pros: The case seems like a pretty good case. Did my research, liked the color, thought it would be nice. Purchased it when it went on sale.

Cons: This is one of my first bad Newegg experiences. I ordered the black one, got the silver one. No way was I going to be able to make the silver version of this case work with my mostly black media center system. Call them up to get them to switch it to the right one and they have me send the silver case back in. Afterwards, I get a notice I was getting a refund because the item was out of stock. A week after I send it back, the site shows the item back in stock. Makes f...

Wow...

Tyler S., Newegg

28 December 2012

Pros: First time investing in a Lian-Li case, and probably not my last. I generally purchase cheaper plastic cases, but wanted something that did a better job of dampening HDD vibration for a home NAS. Lian-Li really took everything into consideration with this case -- rubber grommets for drive mounts, completely tool-less, light aluminum chassis (without sharp finger-slicing edges!), etc. When pushing against the case with both fingers, there's virtually no vibration (a mi...

Cons: The only thing that I was a little bummed about was the USB 3.0 front handle headers. They're not actual motherboard headers, but rather male connectors that are designed to be run to the back of the case and plugged into the motherboard's back panel. I already knew about this from external reviews, however, so it's not really a gripe, just a wish!

Pros: There's no denying the quality of the materials used in this case. From the tool-less/screw-less side panels, the HDD trays, to the chassis feet Lian Li did not cheap out on this. There are multiple mounting options for storage including hot-swap rails and a removable floor-mounted drive tray. Plenty of rubber bushings and screws are included to mount several 2.5" and 3.5" drives. You could choose to forego the floor tray and mount a 140mm fan (not included) as well.

Cons: My biggest gripe is with mounting a standard ATX power supply. In my case the mounting hole on the back of the case can barely receive the PSU. Even though you have to mount a plate to the PSU which covers the opening completely, the opening is so tight that the PSU has to be forced in. I had to return a PSU I ordered that had a small LED because the LED wouldn't clear and in fact I had to scrape the stickers off of the replacement PSU to get it to fit. If you're hand...

Nice case

William T., Newegg

10 October 2012

Summary: I didn't buy an optical drive because for my needs I didn't need it. I used the space to stuff power supply cables into.

Pros: Nice case with a user friendly design. Installing drives is easy and tool less. Removing the side panels involves just pulling them out. I can't comment on the fans since I replaced the stock fans with 2 Noctua's. I've got 5 drives installed in mine and had zero issues getting them in. Overall I'm happy with my purchase.

Cons: If you have a standard ATX power supply it goes without saying that those cables make for a tight fit. Also getting the IO shield in was a royal pain.

Small form factor powerhouse

Summary: Despite a few cons, this is an excellent case for a home server or multimedia machine.

Pros: Nice compact design. It's small but can handle a lot of drives. My setup has four hard drives, DVD-ROM and an SSD. The air flow is good and the fans are very quiet.

Cons: You are limited to using 5.5 inch power supplies. I couldn't find a modular power supply that fits so I had to use a non-modular model. Needless to say, I had unused cables that needed to be tucked away in little space remaining. The cables to the front panel USB 3.0 ports have external connectors instead of the proper header for motherboards. The adapter cost me an extra $10. The lack of a reset button and the bright power/drive LED are minor annoyances.

Small Sleak Simple

Andrew C., Newegg

9 June 2012

Summary: Be ready to spend time on cable management. However im really pleased with size and system. I have 4 2TB drives for 8TB total plus a SSD and blueray drive. Fits everything for a sweet media center/server.

Pros: Small, High Quality, Black, Drive Bays work well, Places for drives everywhere there are 4 bays, 3 drives can fit on bottom, and under the drive cage you can fit another drive. Also fits a fullsize video card no problem. End result after hours of cablemanagement is a small sleak fully capable machiene. Weights a ton with everything in there.

Cons: PSU did not fit. I bought a extender kit from lian li. Also note that USB 3.0 comes terminated with stanard connectors not MOBO connectors. you need an adapter and the adapter i bought did not fit with the PSU above the mobo. I bought a slim cooler but the Stock one would have fit fine as well. CABLE MANGEMENT IS A NIGHTMARE IN THIS CASE.

Overall great case

Matthew W., Newegg

5 May 2012

Summary: Even with the HD bay removed you still have to stay within the size spec on the PSU due to a very slight overlap of the optical drive bay. 160mm fits fine with the HD bay removed, but you need to keep the HD bay I would highly suggest a 140-150mm PSU. 160mm would give your cables almost no room to bend. While stated on their site, if you use 3.5inch HDs on the bottom of the case you will not be able to fit a double wide video card.

Pros: High quality case that was the size I needed for a new multi-purpose HTPC. The look of the case is very professional. The materials are high quality. The sides come off very nicely. I love having two 140mm fans in this size of case. They provide great airflow and are whisper quiet.

Cons: The USB 3 cables from the front of the case are not a USB 3 motherboard header plug, but two very long USB 3 cables which are designed to go out of the back of the case, loop around, and plug into USB 3 plugs on the back of your motherboard. This may have been acceptable for cases when USB 3 first launched (and motherboards may not have had the USB 3 header), but that is no longer the case. It looks like I may be able to separately purchase a proper replacement cable ...